When you're Hunted
by Stuff123456
Summary: When Alex refuses to go on a mission MI6 send him to a care home. While there he is picked up by Cherub. But after Dragon Nine, Scorpia are out to get him...
1. Chapter 1

**AN:This is my first fanfiction.**

 **Set after Snake-head with everything after AU**

Chapter One

"No!" shouted Alex, thinking that the MI6 heads in front of him were completely evil now. Of course he thought they were evil any way this was to much.

"I almost got dissected. Again! I am not going on another mission!" he continued. While Blunt thought, Alex took in the room, a different one to the usual, of course it was still pretty much the same office. Dotted around the room were various modern art pieces hung on the wall with a yucca plant on the desk.

"Well then, as you know, we are your legal guardians and, as was our agreement you shall be sent to a care home. Jack will be sent to America as well." Mr. Blunt replied, as usual, bluntly.

Back at Alex's house, Alex thought about what to do.

"I'll call in the favour Joe Byrne owes me. That hopefully would keep you away from MI6 and their grasp."

"What about you though? I am not leaving you here, Alex" Jack replied indignanly.

"We've got no choice, I mean MI6 would put out a travel ban on me if I tried to leave the country so I think I'll have to put up with it but at least I wont get killed."

"I don't like it but..." Jack said after along time thinking.

At 7 o'clock on the dot a black car with darkened windows pulled into the drive. It was a Mercedes, no doubt armour plated with bullet proof glass. Once inside Alex knew it would be impossible to escape, with the doors locking instantly and fact that Alex could just make out two figures in the back of the car, obviously they were expecting trouble. The sadness just hit him as he stared at the car thinking things through, it all washed over the day before, he might not see Jack ever again.

Trying to ignore those thoughts, Alex walked over to the Mercedes, upon closer inspection he found it was an AMG but with the badges removed. Once inside the vehicle the doors clicked, locking themselves into their position. The figures he had seen outside where two men, roughly in their late 20s, one blond, the other had black hair. On one side their jackets bulged at the hip indicating a gun hidden there. Probably a Walther or a Sig, Alex mused. With that in mind, escaping was impossible.

The Mercedes dropped Alex off at the care home, staying outside in case he ran away. Knowing that that option would result in failure, Alex knew that he would just have to go in. Once inside Alex was greeted by a smiling women whose smile seemed to be too good to be true. She led him into a office.

"Hello, my name is Daisy." she said in the most patronising way possible, Alex thought. "I'll get one of the children to show you around. Your previous carers have signed all the forms for you."

A small wiry kid, quite short, with dark hair stepped into the room.

"This is Bruce. He'll show you around."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Bruce stood there just looking over Alex's shoulder.

"Hello. Is there something interesting behind me." Alex's awkward greeting broke the silence.

"Oh, hi!" Bruce said quickly,"Sorry I was just daydreaming..."

Bruce was wondering what was going on at campus. It was so unfair that Kyle got to stay but not me, he thought. After all Kyle organised the prank and James carried it out, he just didn't do anything to stop it. As a result he had to go on a stupid recruitment mission and so far all the people who came in where over the Cherub's age limit. To stop thinking about it, Bruce started walking to show the new kid around. Surprisingly the kid had silently disappeared.

"Ehhh. New kid! Where are you." Bruce shouted in desperation.

"I was behind you." came a voice from inside the hall way, "Also, please don't call me 'New Kid'. Do whatever you want. I'll show my self around." With that there was a soft patter of feet as the new kid went up the stairs.

"The bedroom's on the first floor, second on the right." Bruce called after him in vain.

Bruce didn't see Alex for the rest of the day but Alex was there, subtly watching Bruce analysing him. It was kind of involuntary, he just did it to any one he met. He wrote the results on a piece of paper with lemon juice, aka invisible ink.

"Is always confident where ever he is. Obviously has extensive martial arts training."

That was as far as he got before he noticed something, the care home did nothing to do with self defence. Promising himself to question Bruce, he went up to the bedroom assigned to him. Once there he found it was shared. Guessing that he shared the bedroom with Bruce, he prepared to interrogate him. The room had three beds and three metal lockers at the end of the room. The paint was flaking off the walls from the damp. Five minutes later Bruce walked in with another boy.

"Well here's Mr. Cheerful!" Bruce said sarcasticly.

"Aren't you going to introduce your friend?" Alex asked.

"I'm James." the tall boy, James, answered.

"This is Alex the Cheerful Newbie." Bruce told James.

"I told you to stop calling me that." Alex replied, annoyed.

" _Oh, I'm sorry._ " Bruce mocked. Alex suddenly realised the perfect way to question Bruce about his martial arts. Suddenly Alex's fist was flying towards Bruce. Blocking, Bruce smiled, "I know karate."

Alex took the moment of distraction and spun him around, wrapping his arm around Bruce's throat and whispering into his ear, "So do I."

The taller boy looked in shock.

"Where did you learn martial arts?" Alex questioned.

"We went to classes."

"Where?" Alex asked, putting more pressure on Bruce's neck.

" . We went to classes organised by the care home." this time James answered.

"Apart from the fact that there aren't any organised."

With that he let Bruce go and sat on the bed.

"It was the place we went to before this." Bruce answered.

Alex was pleased with that answer, it explained a bit, but he still wanted more information. However, one of the thing's he learnt during his 'career' was that you shouldn't press for to much information too soon or you would be suspicious. But, of course, he was probably already suspicious.

The next day James was straight on the phone to his mission controller, Maureen Evans (an apprentice mission controller).

"Look there is this boy, Alex Rider, who, I think, we should bring in. He beat Bruce in a fight and worked out that we didn't come from this care home."

"Well, we'll bring him in." came the voice from the phone, confused.

"You see, the problem is that he is 14, over the recruitment age." James said.

"I'll talk to Mac." After this there was a long beep, signifying she hung up.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

It was shown the next day that Alex was way behind on his education. He barely knew what the topics were. He had to show a note to every single one of his classes stating that he had been severely ill and had missed most of the school year. He could pick thing up quite quickly but it would still take weeks. Surprisingly, Alex was put in the same classes as Bruce. He didn't know that all the knew people were put in to either Bruce or James' classes.

The two boys had to supply Maureen with information about Alex to put in the recruitment letter.

 _***Exert from Maureen Evans' Recruitment Recommendation (Alex Rider)***_

 _Alex has clearly shown that he excels in martial arts by taking down Bruce. He is very intuitive and realised that neither Bruce nor James had come from the care home. No background information has been found about him other than he used to live in Chelsea, London with a housekeeper. Unusually when his uncle died he was left in the care of the bank his uncle worked for. This is being analysed but for some reason Alex was put into care. Also unusual is that, he apparently missed a large part of school due to a terrible immune system. He therefore needs extra tuition. Bear this in mind if you agree to bring him in. He doesn't have a criminal record apart from one incident earlier this year where he apparently used a crane to drop a drug dealers longboat on to a conference on stopping drugs. It remains unknown how he got into the crane and the police didn't pursue the incident. As mentioned before he was very ill. This will also have to be taken into account, however this is debatable as he is obviously healthy._

 _Further information, if required, could be acquired._

For the next 3 days, James and Bruce subtly slipped questions into their conversations with Alex. They started with just normal things such as 'where did you go to school?' and worked up to things more personal. Over a week they managed to build up a large amount of information, pretty much everything apart from his missions. The usual pre-recruitment tests used, i.e. pitting them against one of the school's bullies, were deemed unnecessary as he had already shown that he was a skilled martial artist. Instead, CHERUB closely monitored his academic situation, working out whether to recruit him or not.

"We can't bring Alex in." came McAfferty's voice from down the phone.

"Why?" Maureen questioned.

"We looked at his medical records and it was decided that we can't accept him. Not only was he was very ill most of last year, he was also injured severely in a biking accident only last month. Reports from the hospital likened the wound to one from a gun. Peculiarly, he disappeared from the hospital and then, a few days later reappeared in America and then turned up in Sydney."

"Well, I'll tell James and Bruce. They'll be annoyed, he was their ticket out."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

 _Whilst Alex was refusing to go on another MI6 mission, Scorpia agents snook in to his home using a skeleton key. They wanted Alex's shoes. Once they took these items, they proceeded to place bugs and and micro-cameras into all the spaces where they could be hidden. Once placed, the plain clothed Scorpia agents left the building. It only took them 9 minutes and they were out. No one suspected a thing. Apart from, of course, the bribed guard hired by MI6 to watch Alex._

" _Is the tracker working?"_

" _Yes."_

" _And the men in position?"_

" _Yes."_

" _Start the recovery of agent Rider. Dead or alive."_

 _Alex Rider's kidnapping was planned to take place on a quiet alley on his route home after school. Scorpia pulled out all the stops to get him, they took the best assassins ever trained in Malagosto for the kidnapping, they even smuggled a sniper rifle, which was completely against the import regulations. Of course smuggling is easy when you control the Chada Trading Company and The Liberian Star shipping liner, which was quickly repaired after the damage Alex had done a couple weeks before. Another thing Scorpia wished for Alex to pay for, amongst a lot of other things._

 **Now**

"What are you doing tonight, Alex?" James asked as they walked home.

"Err. Why are you asking me? We live in the same building." Alex replied.

"I don't know. I was trying to be nice." James said, annoyed.

This was all heard by the sniper through the tracker/microphone hidden in Alex's shoe. The sniper was hidden in the upper floor of a 2 story house in the street opposite, the home owners couldn't protest as they were lying dead on the floor – killed by the rest of the Scorpia squad. The sniper opened a large cello case that had been lying on the floor since Scorpia invaded the home. Inside the case a rifle lay in pieces. The man unfolded it to reveal a Barrett .50cal suppressed sniper. The Scorpia sniper opened the window, the house had been chosen because of the fact that the windows fully opened. The sniper poked the Barrett, a huge rifle, out through the window and aimed.

Crack!

A MI6 agent following Alex dropped, dead.

"Ha! A bullet proof vest wont stop this gun!" he whispered to himself.

Crack!

The CCTV camera on the opposite roof was turned to shard as the bullet hit.

"Hey, you two. The camera is down, as is the MI6 agent. GO!" the sniper shouted down at the rest of the Scorpia. A series of Scorpia agents ran out the building with pistols drawn. By this time James and Bruce were running. Alex had been running from the first crack of the sniper rifle.

"He's running! Bring in beta group and cut him off." the sniper called into a radio lying next to him. As soon as he called out the order two police cars pulled up, one at the end of the alley. James sighed in relief. Alex kept running. The police cars' doors opened and a police man stepped out of each car.

Bruce started shouting,"There's a sniper in that building, watch out!" but the police men ignored them. The police started to close in on the 3 boys and the joined the assassins from the building joined their ranks.

"I don't think their police. And they must want us alive." James observed. Alex was shaking next to them muttering something about scorpions. James and Bruce went into a fighting stance only for Alex to tell them not to.

"There's no point trying to fight them, they'll just shoot you." Alex told them.

"I know they have guns but they haven't shot us yet." James said.

"That is because you might be helpful." Alex replied.

"Why would we be helpful?"Bruce questioned,"And what group would target us?"

"Help Earth." James muttered under his breath, "Then again, they don't have the resources to conduct an attack like this."

"Stop muttering James! Just run!" Bruce shouted at him.

James stopped thinking and sprinted the other way, back out to the main road. The two CHERUB agents followed but the two Scorpia agents dressed as police spotted them and pursued. The three teenagers ran across the street hoping to find some cover. They quickly dived into another alley, this one with no way out.

Alex tried to get his phone out to call MI6 or the police but... the Scorpia agents had found them. They were trapped with the agent between them and the street.

"Bruce, and James if you know Karate, try and hold them off while I get the police, the _real police_."

Of course that wasn't what he was actually going to do. He actually called MI6. _They'll be here faster than anyone else and they'll bring the police,_ he thought, _then again, they never brought backup whenever I needed it._ Meanwhile James and Bruce desperately tried to hold them off but there was too many of the Scorpia kidnappers. Bruce suddenly shouted, "Pepper spray, James use the pepper spray!"

At that James pulled out two small cans of what looked like spray paint but was actually highly concentrated pepper, designed, and is, MI5's most powerful non-lethal weapon. The CHERUB's had only recently acquired it and they pretty much field tested it and then stocked as many as possible.

"Done!" Alex called and joined the fight. But the three of them still couldn't do anything against the mass of Scorpia agents-

Crack!

"Is that the sniper?!" James shouted.

Alex too looked fearful for a moment before grinning.

"No. That was help."

James looked into the Scorpia line and saw one man crumpled with a dart in his neck. Suddenly more darts sprouted in the necks of the kidnappers until only one was left. At that point the Scorpia agent realised what was going on and pulled a gun from inside his jacket. He raised his arm and aimed but his hand started to shake. He fired. A scorch mark appeared next to Alex's foot from where the bullet ricocheted. A dart appeared in the man's neck and he crumpled. Out of the shadows 3 men stepped.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

 _Out of the shadows three men stepped._

The one on the left stood further forward than the others. He was slightly shorter with a broken nose and dressed in urban camouflage

"What happened here?!" the he yelled at them.

" I'm guessing kidnapping." James answered, "And why do police have dart firing guns."

Behind the two CHERUB agents, Alex was backing slowly away. Although James and Bruce didn't see this, the men in front of them did.

"Where are you going?!" the man shouted at Alex.

Now seen, Alex started to run. The man on the right sprinted after him, catching him very quickly. This man stood much taller than the person previously talking.

"Well, hello 'double oh nothing', it was a while since we saw you." the man whispered into Alex's ear.

"What are you doing here Eagle?" Alex whispered, angry.

"You two stop chatting and get back here." the short man yelled at them.

"Yes Wolf!" Eagle shouted jogging back to the other men.

"As I said, who are you?" James continued to try and question the men.

"We aren't ,as you guessed, police. We are SAS working in conjunction with Special Branch. Your call was put through to them after it was made. Any idea who they are?" the short man, Wolf, said- pointing towards the fallen terrorist agents.

At this James and Bruce looked between them and James then said, "Help Earth."

After that remark the SAS men look between each other, confused.

"You know, the environmentalist group. The one that planned that anthrax attack."

"Yeah, I know but a) they were destroyed after that raid on The Ark thing and b) why would they attack you three. Are any of your parents oil barons or something?" Wolf asked.

"It isn't them, I think it'll be _Scorpia_." Alex replied.

"And the same thing to you. Why would they attack." Wolf replied.

"I don't know. You're the "Special Branch", you should find out." Alex retorted, knowing that MI6 must have sent them.

"Hey, what about the sniper in the house of there?" Bruce said to the SAS member, who was becoming very angry.

"He is being cleared out by the police anti-terrorism unit, you don't need to worry." said the final member of the SAS group, Snake.

It was very ate in the night when the 3 boys got back from the police station, they were told they would be put into protective custody the next day. Bruce and James had some work to do.

"Maureen, there's been a problem... We are being put into protective custody." Bruce said into the phone.

"Why is that, Bruce?" Maureen asked concerned.

"Ehh, it's hard to explain. You see these people attacked us." Bruce replied

"You don't get put in protective custody for a mugging."

"Well you see it wasn't a mugging, it was more of a kidnapping/assassination attempt."

"What!"Maureen screamed down the phone.

"James thought it might be _Help Earth-_ "

"That would make sense."

"But Alex, the boy we were planning to bring in, thought it was a thing called _Scorpia._ "

"Wait, did you say _Scorpia?_ " Maureen screamed again,"Give me a moment I need to go to the archives."

The Cherub archive were built into the bottom of the mission preparation building and included hundreds of reports of everything from terrorist organisations to drug dealers and mission reports. The room was full of large shelves stretching back the whole length of the building with a few CHERUBs on punishment duty running around digitalising the whole archives. Maureen walked down the aisle marked 'S' until she came to ' _Scorpia_ '. This one word had a whole shelf to itself, including a small book named '10% OF ALL CRIME' it was a very little known book, in fact the author, Max Grendal, had been killed whilst retiring. Scorpion venom had been found in his blood in a autopsy. He was a former MI5 mole who was suspected to have sold the Communists, and later various terrorist groups, classified information for a long time. Maureen pulled the book from the shelve and turned to the contents page.

 _ **The History of Scorpia**_

 _Founding of Scorpia page 001_

 _Hunter and the first Dark Age of Scorpia_ _page 020_

 _The Stormbreaker Project page 045_

 _Operation Invisible Sword page 060_

 _The Snake-head and Project Royal Blue page 081_

 _ **The Polices of Scorpia**_

 _Assassinations page 099_

 _Forgiveness and Revenge page 114_

 _Training page 127_

 _Politics page 143_

Maureen had found what she was looking for, page 114, Forgiveness and ,more importantly, Revenge. She flipped through the book to the relevant chapter. What was written did not give her hope.

 _On the subject of forgiving, it should be noted that Scorpia does not actually forgive until the person in question is killed. This is where revenge comes in. Any influential person who leaves Scorpia would be killed to stop them from selling information to the highest bidder. Scorpia also assassinates any rivals and especially people who insulted them and beaten them. This means that a number of deaths of MI6 agents are accounted to Scorpia 'Revenge Teams'. These are groups of Scorpia operatives that are brought in for special targets and hunt and kill those who betrayed the organisation. Although most groups operate only to kill, one or two teams try and capture high profile enemies for interrogation and torture._

That was all Maureen wanted to read. She had to get Mac and hope he could pull a few favours with MI5 to get custody of this Alex Rider


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"You will not put Alex Rider into protective custody!" a voice screamed down the phone.

"If a terrorist attack happens on UK soil it is in our jurisdiction. You should know that Mrs. Jones." the MI5 operative said mockingly.

"We had an agreement, any thing to do with Scorpia were under the jurisdiction of MI6." Mrs. Jones replied.

"Yes and there is no confirmation that this was Scorpia, no-one has owned up to it. And also why would Scorpia ,one of the largest criminal organisations in the world go after three children. Unless, of course, you need to tell us something about this Alex Rider." the MI5 operative said, backing Mrs. Jones into a metaphorical corner. Either she says something about Alex, against the Official Secrets Act, or not say any thing and he would be put into protective custody.

In the end she decided to let Alex go, Blunt wouldn't be happy but Alex would be safe, from Scorpia- and Blunt.

"Did it work?"

" _Yes,_ it worked will you stop nagging me?" came the reply.

"Thank god for your friends in high places, Mac." Maureen said. "So, we have James and Bruce out of secure custody and we can bring in Alex Rider."

"Yes. But don't tell him that, make Alex think he is being brought to a safe house and use that as an excuse to get him out."

Meanwhile in the care home, "We aren't getting sent into protective custody!" Bruce whispered to James.

"Why are you whispering?"James asked.

"Because Alex can't know, that will be the excuse for his disappearance." came Bruce's reply

"Do we need to do anything?" questioned James.

"Nothing apart from make it look like we don't know anything. Though in your case that won't be hard."

"Hey!"

Alex, James and Bruce got into the car. It was a black unmarked police car borrowed for CHERUB's usage. The driver was a balding man, who still radiated a sense of fear around him. It was Kazakov, the ex spetznaz operator, Afghanistan war veteran and CHERUB instructor.

They headed North, towards Luton, when suddenly Bruce held a damp cloth over Alex's mouth. Alex's eyes widened with shock as he reacted to the chloroform before he slumped over limp. The car turned towards the CHERUB Campus and speed up.

"He's out?" came Kazakov's voice from the front of the car.

"Yep, he's out!" Bruce almost shouted.

Alex woke hours later, lying in a bed in a room. He looked around, there wasn't a living soul there and there was no cameras. The walls were white and sterile with no personality at all, like that of a hospital, but with a sense that everything was deserted as no sound entered the room. The walls were featureless with no windows, the only light coming from two artificial lights which were glaring with white intensity. Alex crawled out and pulled on the clothes left on the bed, camouflage combat trousers and a orange T-shirt with the word CHERUB written on around a picture of a actual cherub. He would have thought this to be Scorpia apart from the lack of guards, restraints and a person telling him how evil their plan was. But this must be a different faction, this 'Cherub'. Another faction that had decided that children were very good 'operatives'.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: This had to be posted again due to it going really** **weird** **. Thanks to Madra uzemaki for pointing that out.**

 **Chapter 7**

He walked out the sterile white room into a near identical corridor. As he walked around he saw no one. Not one guard or camera. In fact, it looked a lot like a normal, if empty, hospital. Doors were spotted along the corridor, but all of them were locked. As he went forward he started to suspect that it was all a trap, with no cameras in order to confuse him and make him think that their organisation, CHERUB, might be okay. Alex still had no idea what they did, though he thought that they were probably freelance or terrorists. After all why would MI6 use him if they had these children to use instead.

He made the way down the corridor without seeing anyone. In front of Alex, the passage turned round a corner and stopped being so sterile and less like a hospital. In fact it started to look suspiciously like a school. However Alex paid that less attention than the people in front of him. All of them were around his age and wearing similar clothes to him. Specifically the T shirt with the cherub on the front of it, however they were all differing colours from his; theirs ranging from grey to blue. Alex quickly rushed over to one of them.

"What's going on?" he asked relieved to have finally have found someone.

The boy mumbled, "Can't talk to orange." and shuffled back away. Alex went over to one of the other children who just said the same thing, "Can't talk to orange."

He tried ask one more person, expecting the same response but the girl seemed exasperated and sighed, saying, "Just go down that corridor and its the first room on the right."

This corridor was a lot less clinical than the previous one, looking more like part of a office block. The room he was pointed to was labelled 'MacAfferty'. He pushed the door open revealing a large open office with a tall, bald man, presumably MacAfferty, sitting behind a wooden desk.

"Ah, Alex, I was wondering when you might come round." The man said, "Please, sit."

"Where am I?"asked Alex as he reluctantly took a seat.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that." said MacAfferty.

"Well, why am I here?" Alex asked instead.

"While it may sound preposterous, I am the chairman of CHERUB, a hidden branch of Britain's intelligence organisations that employs children as spies."

Alex looked shocked. MI6 used him when they already had a child spy in fact they didn't just have one, they had a whole organisation full of them. But MacAfferty was talking again.

"-normally you would be too old, but considering that attack we decided that we could make an exception. After all you would be protected from any attack by that group."

They would protect him from Scorpia. He almost said yes right then.

"What would I have to do?" Alex asked.

"Usually, our missions include infiltrating gangs through their lower ranks and providing information for police. Most of our operations are against the gangs in England and counter-terrorism." MacAfferty replied. Alex thought about this. He only had one more question.

"How dangerous would it be?" he asked. After all the didn't want to be threatened with torture again.

"All missions are dangerous, naturally, but they have to pass the ethics board. They are a group of people who analyse the dangers that that would be expected in the mission. If the majority of those people say that it is allowed then it goes. And you would work in groups."

That was a lot better than what MI6 did. Alex thought about it.

"I'm in."


End file.
